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These products are fundamentally disturbing and depressing. The push by Apple, Meta, et al to normalize long term, general-purpose use of AR/MR is at best an at

These products are fundamentally disturbing and depressing. The push by Apple, Meta, et al to normalize long term, general-purpose use of AR/MR is at best an attempt to generate a new iPod/iPhone craze by manipulating people into thinking they need a bulky $3499 gadget (that’s three thousand four hundred ninety-nine, not thirty four ninety nine, Mr Patel) that actually impinges on their ability to interact and integrate with the world rather than augmenting it. At its (much, much) worst, it’s an attempt at an evolutionary leap in corporate surveillance and extending the walled garden further into our perception of reality. Thinking about people going about their daily routine with this ridiculous parasite strapped to their faces, grasping at the air around them like the blind searching for the bathroom at an airport, fills me with more dread and sadness than any episode of Black Mirror. I cannot comprehend the mind of someone who willingly and enthusiastically pays that sort of money to insert a lossy, delayed, artifact-laced layer between themselves and the world directly in front of them. This is the enshittification of reality, processed via a corporate filter and the people around us replaced with clumsy and cringy simulacra.

panarky 3y ago
Fifteen years ago, when Facebook was growing exponentially through social pressure and gamification, a few misfits and weirdos made the conscious decision to opt out of the entire ecosystem of surveillance, exploitation and social alienation. Since then, millions more have quietly joined those misfits and weirdos, and the opt-out trend feels like it's accelerating. There must be strong demand for products that are actually good and healthy for those who use them, products that don't systematically make their customers ill in order to further enrich a few billionaires. Ignore for a moment how you might monetize it to make yourself a billionaire. Instead, imagine what would be most useful, most healthy, most beneficial for the customer. Then build that. The result probably won't make you a billionaire, but you could live pretty well. And the world would be better for it.

panarky 3y ago

Fifteen years ago, when Facebook was growing exponentially through social pressure and gamification, a few misfits and weirdos made the conscious decision to opt out of the entire ecosystem of surveillance, exploitation and social alienation. Since then, millions more have quietly joined those misfits and weirdos, and the opt-out trend feels like it's accelerating. There must be strong demand for products that are actually good and healthy for those who use them, products that don't systematically make their customers ill in order to further enrich a few billionaires. Ignore for a moment how you might monetize it to make yourself a billionaire. Instead, imagine what would be most useful, most healthy, most beneficial for the customer. Then build that. The result probably won't make you a billionaire, but you could live pretty well. And the world would be better for it.